Many people appreciate the need to exercise. Unfortunately, although previous exercise machines such as stationary bikes, treadmills, rowing machines and the like, may have provided adequate workouts, most users became bored with the monotonous exercise process, and stopped exercising over time. To help avoid boredom, health clubs and home users have turned to such diversionary activities as listening to music, watching television, and reading. These activities however merely attempt to distract the user from the activity or exercise in which the user is engaged.
Research has shown that people who exercise outdoors by jogging or cycling tend to exercise more regularly, primarily due to positive interaction with others and/or the environment. Simulation based exercise machines have previously been devised wherein a visual display translated the user's activity into a game or simulator displayed on a video monitor in front of the user. These systems however have been expensive and inaccessible to the vast majority of those who could benefit from their use.
The expense of previous systems was due in part to the high cost of computers, which lacked the performance to run high fidelity simulations in real-time, the exorbitant price of computerized sensors and high end physics software. Although, recent advances in computer technology coupled with lower price points on personal computer systems have enabled the average user to run high end applications, with 3D graphics and high fidelity simulation, at least the following issues have still prevented affordable virtual reality exercise machines from entering the marketplace.
First, most current exercise devices are not compact enough to fit under a desk, are not multifunctional (e.g., for multiple exercises such as cycling, rowing, dipping, etc.), do not provide for variable resistance training, and do not provide for adjustment of the gripping mechanism, including, e.g., the pedal position and rowing arm lengths.
Second, most current computer simulation enhanced exercise systems do not provide real-time sensor feeds to the simulation application because current sensors are too costly. Without real-time sensors, current systems lacked true interactive simulation functionality.
Third, current systems rely on first-generation physics models for simulations that are (1) limited by computational efficiency because first-generation physics-based simulation algorithms are not optimized for real-time applications running on PCs, and (2) are less accurate than modem algorithms, such as Pacejka's formula, for modeling tire forces.
Fourth, current systems do not manage visual modeling complexity well because they relied upon a purely functional approach (non-object oriented approach) using OpenGL directly, which is not object-oriented because it is comprised of C functions as opposed to C++ objects.
Fifth, current systems do not efficiently or accurately model moving cameras because they required complex camera updates due to the lack of model complexity management provided by a scene graph.
Sixth, current rail vehicle simulators do not properly model the vehicle due to the oversimplification of the vehicle dynamics (due to attempts to make it fast enough for real-time), and/or do not model the complex rail/track geometry accurately in a real-time environment, combined with real-time sensor inputs for propulsion updates.
Seventh, current systems do not provide the user with accurate calorie burn rates and/or a visualization of the amount of calories burned by accurately associating calories with common food items.
Eighth, current systems do not provide fully integrated multi-user environments, or other network connectivity enhancements and thus limit the amount of game interaction and restrict enhancement of the exercise experience.
Therefore, there exists a need for an interactive computer simulation enhanced exercise machine that resolves these deficiencies, including (1) a compact multifunctional under desk exercise device providing variable resistance levels, and (2) an inexpensive system to directly link the user's exercise into interactive visual simulators or games, such as emulating the outdoor exercise experience or an exercise experience in an imaginary world with interactive computer simulations using real-time sensors, physics based modeling, accurate caloric counters and visualization of the same, efficient simulation algorithms and multiplayer network simulations and games.